


Polaroid

by SLWalker



Series: Arch to the Sky [3]
Category: due South
Genre: Arch to the Sky, Family, Gen, Leaside (1971-1990)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-22
Updated: 2011-07-22
Packaged: 2017-10-21 15:55:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/226949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SLWalker/pseuds/SLWalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>1976:  Myra braves the chill, the mud and the squirrels to give her brother his first Easter egg hunt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Polaroid

Myra stared at the squirrel and the squirrel stared back. Then, it flicked its bushy tail and darted up a tree. Perhaps it knew better than to interfere with her plans.

The backyard was fair sized and there were enough evergreen shrubs and tree trunks to provide some cover. The snow had melted and the rain had stopped -- at least temporarily -- and the ground was just barely dry enough to allow this to be possible.

Even so, the hem of her dress was dirty and her shoes were scuffed and Myra was entirely certain that her mother was staring with dismay out of the kitchen window. She imagined she probably did look a little silly, stooping around brushes and creeping around tree trunks, but she honestly didn't care.

The sky was gray, and the world was still gray and mud brown, but the bright spots of color were very visible, even 'hidden' and that was exactly what she intended. Inside, Renfield had doubtless been stripped of his church clothes and patent leather shoes, put into his play clothes and was most likely napping on the couch after a morning in Sunday School. Outside, Myra was organizing his very first Easter egg hunt, despite the fact that their mother thought that perhaps he wouldn't really understand the concept at the tender age of four.

Myra, on the other hand, was absolutely sure he'd get a kick out of it.

She placed the last egg and surveyed her work, and sure enough, when she glanced at the kitchen window, her mother was there. They looked at each other for a moment, then her mother grinned and shook her head, vanishing back into the darkness of the house.

Myra was trudging towards the back door when Renfield burst out of it, bundled up in his coat and dragging a basket that was half as tall as he was, blond hair bouncing. "Myra! Myra! Myra!"

Myra crouched to speak to him and was knocked back on her backside when her brother forgot to stop himself; she was laughing and wincing as the still damp ground soaked through her dress and a bunch of pointy knees and elbows -- an infinite number, it seemed, for a finite number of limbs -- dug into her legs and her sides and just about everywhere else. "Do you know what you're supposed to do?" she asked, when she managed to coordinate herself enough to speak and perhaps not end up on her back.

He beamed and nodded. "Mum told me."

Sure enough, their parents stood in the back door, their father holding the Polaroid.

She heard the snap of the picture before she had time to really protest: Her, dirty and disheveled in a ruined Easter dress, sitting on the ground, and her brother looking one second from bounding off of her lap to go on his very first Easter egg hunt.

It remained her favorite of the day. Dirt and all.


End file.
